The latest council tax hikes will do little to pay Birmingham's adult social care bill, exclusive analysis reveals.

The government announced in December that it was allowing councils to raise tax by three per cent on top of the general rise already allowed - money it said would pay for adult social care services.

But an investigation by the Birmingham Mail has revealed that, despite Birmingham council increasing tax by close to the maximum allowed, the ring-fenced funds are only likely to make up a tiny fraction of overall spending.

According to our analysis, the proportion of council tax now designated for adult social care will raise an estimated £14.8 million for Birmingham City Council over 2017-18.

However, with services expected to have cost the council around £232.6 million last year, this element of council tax is just a drop in the ocean when it comes to plugging the funding gap for adult social care.

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The flexibility allowing local authorities to raise council tax in order to fund care services was introduced as a measure to make up for continuing slashes to local government grants.

However, the different makeup of properties in each area will mean local authorities that aren’t able to raise as much in council tax will end up worse off - especially if they face greater demand for services.

For example, while the adult social care precept will make up around six per cent of the cost in Birmingham, in the London borough of Merton it will raise nearly 10 per cent of the total.

That’s partly because 65 per cent of properties in Birmingham are in council tax bands A and B, compared to just 11 per cent in Merton.

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The cost of adult social care is also much lower in the borough. In 2016-17, Merton council spent an estimated £40.9 million on adult care - less than a fifth of the cost to Birmingham City Council.

The Local Government Association have warned that council tax rises will not prevent the need for continued cutbacks to social care.

In real terms, spending on adult social care in Birmingham has already been cut by 40 per cent since 2010-11 - the equivalent of £150 million once inflation is taken into account.

The LGA say that councils will have to continue to divert more money from other local services, including filling potholes, maintaining parks and running libraries, to try and plug growing social care funding gaps.

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Birmingham budget 2017/18

Lord Porter, chairman of the LGA, said: “Services supporting the most vulnerable people in our communities are at breaking point, and many councils are increasingly unable to turn down the chance to raise desperately-needed money for social care and other local services next year.

“But extra council tax income will not bring in anywhere near enough money to alleviate the growing pressure on social care both now and in the future, and the social care precept raises different amounts of money in different parts of the country.

“Social care faces a funding gap of at least £2.6 billion by 2020. It cannot be left to council taxpayers alone to try and fix this crisis.

“Without genuinely new additional government funding for social care, vulnerable people face an ever uncertain future where they might no longer receive the dignified care and support they deserve. This is not only worse for our loved ones but will also heap further pressure and wasted expense on the NHS.”